What happened yesterday reminds me of "The Pez Dispenser" of Seinfeld, when George undertakes a "preemptive breakup." George is troubled over the fact that he has no "hand" (upper hand) in the relationship, and fears his girlfriend will break up with him. Acting on "genius" advice from Kramer, George "preemptively breaks up" with her, causing her to want him more and thus giving him the "hand."
As reported by by NBC News' Courtney Kube, Hallie Jackson, Carol E. Lee, Kristen Welker and Peter Alexander, "[T]he president, fearing that the North Koreans might beat him to the punch, wanted to be the one to cancel first, multiple officials told NBC News. ... The decision occurred so abruptly that the administration was unable to give congressional leaders and key allies advance notice and the letter went out while more than two dozen foreign journalists, including several U.S. citizens, were inside North Korea where they had gone to witness a promised dismantling of a nuclear test site."
Maybe Trump believes that his preemptive breakup will cause Kim Jong-un to want him more, giving Trump the "hand" in the relationship.
1
This is such a non-event. North Korea is merely destroying an outdated facility that probably costs too much to maintain. Since we know North Korea will never give up its “Trump” card, so to speak, obviously their updated nuclear weapons facilities have come on line, carefully hidden.
and the N Koreans were right about Pence. How can you compare Libya to N Korea? One has no real government, the other has one of the most and closed and repressive on earth.
"Trump's Way" is not the historically correct way to accomplish anything in that part of the world. "Upending" North Korea's big moment is a very big "faux-pas", and it is very plain that Bolton was behind it. Dumb political Tactics, America. We seem to have emptied the Swamp, but Trump immediately filled ip up again with old, trained, stand-bys.........
How after hearing comments by Bolton and Pence could Kim go to the summit and make a deal? Three weeks before the summit Trump rips up the Iran Deal and we think Kim is going to risk his life with the hardliners at home by making with people who promised a deal like the Libyan Deal.I believe any deal Kim made in Singapore where he gave away the store,his Nuke, would have surely caused a regime change in North Korea.Trump's habit of shooting from the hip this time caused him to shoot himself in the foot. Trump's Diplomacy on the Fly crashed.
1
I am sorry to all you patriots, but I think the USA is the rogue aggressor here. Grasping at thin excuses to break off relations with a country that has shown willing to come to the table for discussion of current differences?! How easy it is to forget the terrible onslaught of US led bombing on North Korea in the 1950's. We killed 30% of the population, destroyed 78 cities and thousands of villages - for what? Is it really hard to understand how far Kim Jong un came to putting aside mistrust of the mighty USA and now thanks to this current administration there is no going back.
1
I noticed that there are about 1 in 5 articles in the NYT, that are sympathetic to the President. I do not sense this percentage in the readership, where it is more like 1 in 20, so the logical conclusion is that this is a service to advertisers and certain parts of the ownership. That's fine - but it is strange when a news organization tries to balance what has no balance.
In any event, the headline seems to paint this bad fumble by Trump as a win. But as everybody knows and sees - it is not that.
After reading the first 5 or 6 of your NYT Picks, I am struck by the fact that no one seems to expect anything beyond total nuclear disarmament from Kim. Am I the only person on this planet to think he would be crazy to do any such thing?
For 65 years we have been threatening the oblivion of his small country, possibly out of an inability to accept the fact that we were unable to reunite Korea under our aegis and were lucky to end up with a draw.
These people have struggled to withstand a continuing U.S. onslaught and have made great sacrifices to mount their protective nuclear arsenal. Isn't it time for the U.S. to try to understand how others think and how they feel about what is necessary for their survival? It is the arrogance of power which now turns me off.
Instead of portraying Kim as the devil incarnate, we would be further by trying to understand his motives, agree to let him keep his arsenal if it can be regularly inspected by neutral authorities and welcome North Korea into the family of nations. It would also be to the point to recognize that there are many intangibles binding North and South Korea even after 65 years of estrangement.
1
Nuclear weapons are useless to Kim Yung Un's real goal: control of South Korea. North Korea's nukes have always been a bargaining chip in negotiations with the U.S. to remove economic sanctions and withdraw American troops from South Korea. These, along with retaining the North's vast advantage in conventional weapons give Kim the military and economic leverage he seeks to bring South Korea under his control.
In Trump, Kim sees a president so unpopular he's willing to make concessions none of his predecessors ever had. So Kim is gladly letting Trump think it was those apocalyptic tweets that scared Kim into bargaining. The exact opposite is true.
A frustrated Trump has now pulled the plug on the summit in a fit of pique. But don't be surprised if Kim lures Trump back to the table -- in a position for Trump that will be weaker than ever.
5
I don't think anyone, even in North Korea, is delusional to think that Kim Jong Un will ever be able to bring South Korea under his control. The world would never let that happen. His is a very poor country with an antiquated army and nuclear weapons that he can threaten with but never use.
Kim Jong Un seems a smart man, and Donald Trump is too. If Kim wants to trade his nuclear weapons for peace and prosperity, Trump will do that deal. If Kim wants terms like Iran got, Trump will walk away.
What will happen? We'll see.
1
A bunch of worthless drama by two spoiled boys. These Reality TV celebrities are revving up their ratings.
2
Dear Kimmy;
I really wanted our play date in Singapore, but Mikey and Johnny say you pushed them on the playground just ‘cause they said you said I said you’d get treated like ‘Libya’ did, and you know my toys and thumbs are bigger than yours anyway! 'Sides that, many people, everybody is saying, MY Buttons is the Biggest! And, you wanted it first, before I did too, and Now we don’t get no prizes neither, and I didn’t want one anyway, ‘cause my toys can beat up your toys so be careful ‘cause mine can Break anything I want, if you don’t change your mind.
3
This is what happens when the person in charge is both arrogant and willfully ignorant. Is there anyone left at the State Dept who has experience with the subtleties of Asian culture, language and etiquette?
4
Trump once again is like a bull in a china shop. What world leader would ever trust him?
1
What has "President" can't walk and chew gum done since in office. Bait and Switch? Prolong? Yeah "Greatness" lives in his own mind. USA ---United States Against your better judgement.
1
Trump extends the hand then rips it back.
So in the eyes of the world who looks like the stupid one Kim who still had his hand extended or Trump trying to show the world how fast he can back track.
President Stupid again brings America down another peg.
4
So did anyone REALLY think that Trump would go through with any of this? Especially after he hired the walrus looking fellow who loves to spew a lot? I wish the childhood saying were true,"liar.liar ,pants on fire." Someone would burn brighter than our sun. Cannot wait till 2018 tax returns are done,there will be taxpayers recreating a scene out of a Frankenstein movie waiting for the Donald.
1
So trump broke up with Kim before Kim broke up with him. He should break up with Putin, too.
When the WH & Pence used the Khadifi analogy as a public rebuke against Kim, they showed utter ignorance. Kim was right to say they are political idiots. Meanwhile, the citizens of the US are losing a grip on our republic every day.
This is not a "victory" for the Current Occupant; he's just had the Nobel rug pulled out from under him--not that he should ever get one, given the messes he's made everywhere he goes--peace, shmeece--he's a chaos kind of guy. His base will admire him for canceling a meeting--so manly, you know. The reality is that Kim has thumbed his nose at him and gained stature in the process.
3
So much for trump's Nobel Peace Prize.
2
Trump thrives on adulation and expects it from everybody, even dangerous dictators with nuclear arsenals. Recent North Korean moves made Trump feel insufficiently praised and appreciated, so he lashed out. Now he's made a perilous situation much worse. This is what America gets for making a pouty four-year-old President.
“only KNOWN test site” which has been reported to have geological instability
1
What a perfect time to have a Presidential Apprentice. Seriously.
Mr. Trump and his front team of John Bolton does not know the basis of simple diplomacy. North Korea released the hostages as good will. You cannot dictate the terms of any potential agreement prior to any meeting. This is diplomacy and not forching a construction contractor to lower his bill. What Mr. Bolton said about de-nuclearization on a Libyan model, is plainly disgusting and painful even for American readers. That model brings back very bad memory of US handling of Libya and its crisis. Aslo, it was preposterous of Trump to start taling of Nobel Prize. Fro what? I am equally embarassed at the release of this letter. You don't show your cards and reach an impossible and irreversible position by releasing such letter. Further, the language on the letter is equally painful and bombastic. Finally, Mr. Trump you had completely and utterly failed a simple diplomatic test.
3
Trump has neither wisdom nor statesmanship. After dumping the Iran Deal, his credibility is even lower than ever.
Could the hawkish Bolton + Pence have blown up negotiations intentionally? One wonders.
Trump's ineptitude brings power to both China and Russia, while America ends up looking like the evil empire of imperialistic military aggression and regime change.
Invoking Libya was a huge error in judgment. Team Trump, clueless, does not understand historical perspective or culture, nor do they care to. Trump is exposed as feckless.
During Pompeo’s hearing, Senator Bob Menendez, top-ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, nailed it:
"To withdrawal from the planned talks showed that “the art of diplomacy is a lot harder than the art of the deal.”
1
Take this action back to steps.
Pence makes a remark on the Libya model (similar to Bolton 2 weeks ago)
North Korea reacts aggressively to Pence's remarks on Libya model (just as they did 2 weeks ago when Bolton made the same remarks
Trump cancels meeting.
So why did Pence make the same remarks?
1
Trump ended “his” big moment because he has no idea of the history of negotiations between. North Korea and the U.S. Anyone who knows anything about North Korea could see this coming. And trump fell right into the trap. Nobel? No way.
Not testing means nothing. The US doesn't test their nukes. I haven't read anything that suggests Russia or China test theirs. They use computer simulations now. Cheaper, safe, and no one knows it's being done.
1
Mr Trump upended nothing. North Korea played its cards magnificently by appearing to be conciliatory and willing to negotiate on equal footing with the US administration. It showed its good faith by releasing the three US missionaries as a gesture of good faith, and has now made a big show by blowing up this obsolete nuclear site.
Kim Jong-un and Xi Jinping are hand in glove, and are masters at playing this administration...whose ineptitude was highlighted by Mr Bolton's and Mr Pence's bellicose and insulting statements (which could also arguably have been intended to sabotage the meeting).
I am hopeful the two Koreas will be able to come to terms with the involvement of China and Japan...and exclude the US whose involvement is nothing but constructive.
These four nations live cheek to jowl and do not need us to meddle in this issue. No one on the Korean peninsula forgets that it was the US who caused the maiming and death of 3 million North Koreans during the Korean War.
1
"and exclude the US whose involvement is nothing but constructive ." ?
That doesn't make any sense.
Trump doesn't tolerate his adversaries getting out a media message that he can't outdo or undo.
1
Trump didn't upend North Korea's big moment. Quite the reverse. It made Kim Jong-un look even more reasonable in the eyes of the world. The contrast is striking. Kim is blowing up his nuclear testing facilities as a propitiatory gesture to the U.S. just hours before our warmongering president cancels their summit. That should play nicely in the capitals of the world, especially on the heals of Trump's abandoning the Iran nuclear agreement. No, our brilliant negotiator-in-chief just handed Kim Jong-un a major foreign policy and propaganda triumph.
1
First of all, these tunnels can easily be opened again. I doubt they destroyed them along their entire length.
Second, I seriously doubt that Kim did not know exactly how Trump would react. He plays him like a fiddle. Trump lost the initiative in this game a long time ago.
Third, by blowing up the tunnels Kim can claim that he took an honest step towards Trump's demands, only to have Trump now chicken out of the meeting he so eagerly had embraced.
Fourth, and that may have been an equally important factor, it must have felt sooooo gooood to rub the Nobel Peace Prize into Trump's face.
Trump is back on square one with a badly ravaged chess board in front of him. Let's see how the king is going to move next.
On a side note, I would very much like to know whether Trump has now also blocked Kim on his Twitter channel....
Someone please bring him back home and put him in his play pen.
President Trump’s handling of the North Korean relationship seems irrational and potentially dangerous. Perhaps there is a method in the madness. However, it is hard to recognize what it is.
My take on this is that Trump jumped at the opportunity of negotiations without giving it much thought or analysis; perhaps eyeing the Nobel. Big news splash. As the consequences of negotiations became a topic for his advisors, he started to understand the danger to his political standing if negotiations went bad. Then he moved Bolton into National Security Advisor and Pompeo as Secretary of State changing the nature of the advise he had been listening to. Add to this Trump's desire to be ahead of the news every day in every way; no matter how it looks to you or me, as long a Trump's name is in headlines he's happy. Today, another big splash. Donald wins again.
James March, emeritus professor at Stanford University, and many Hoover Institution scholars who have studied the Cuban Missile Crisis, have explained US success in the crisis owed much to luck, given the many organizational flaws in the US intelligence agencies as well as the fractured sharing of information. The organizations, however, were at times able to execute actions that did lead to success.
Unfortunately, the US failed to learn from history and permitted some of these organizational failures to recur before 9/11 and the US was not so lucky.
Trump has railed against the intelligence community and is prone to confirmation bias. Thus, I fear he will receive more limited and fragmented data and intelligence, but will ignore any coherent data which might come from US intelligence agencies.
Trump has purged the State Department and has lost vast institutional knowledge. He believes he is smarter than the generals and knows the truth better than the intelligence community. These actions and mindset will lead to great organizational failures or poor decision making based upon missing known information.
Trump's incoherent, contradictory trade policy vis-a-vis China has left the world perplexed what is supposed to happen to nations who violate sanctions imposed against aspiring or new nuclear powers.
With this uncertainty, blunders are bound to happen.
2
I believe Trump did the right thing. North Korea was starting it's well known custom of warning that the meeting would be canceled, hoping for concessions from the U.S., as has occurred many times in the past.
Trump called their bluff, and if sanctions are further tightened, it will show North Korea the U.S. is on to their tactics and will not be played with.
1
In 1970, Secretary of State William Rogers commented in an interview that in order to deal successfully with Asia, we had to remember that they were all about saving face in their negotiations. this became a topic of discussion in my high school social studies class. Henry Kissinger understood this. This was easy for 30 kids in my class to understand. What happened to Trump?
7
Doesn't get it, doesn't care!
Spin, spin, spin,... Trump blew it and is now trying to make his preemptive victory lap somebody else's fault. The bottom line is that Trump may understand the world of real estate development but he doesn't have a clue when it comes to international diplomacy and relations.
I remember reading an article by an unsatisfied Trump customer who first met with "The Donald" then met with the architects, engineers and lawyers and discovered that all that Trump promised could not be accomplished. The author was told that all customers meet with Trump first because if they meet last, Trump tries to change the details that he doesn't understand.
Looks to me like the pattern hasn't changed.
31
That’s the property development business: oversell, under-deliver, and on to the next pigeon.
The loser isn’t Kim Jong-un, but Trump, because he has proved himself how inept he is. The whole world says that Trump can’t be trusted. They think Pyongyang has demonstrated enough goodwill – the release of three American detainees in North Korea and the dismantling of a nuclear site – that deserve recognition from the US. Instead Trump called for an immediate and total denuclearisation of North Korea as a starting point of the now cancelled summit, with John Bolton and Mike Pence bringing Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi back from the dead.
It remains to be seen how Kim responds to what he sees as Trump’s act of humiliation and bullyism, raising serious fears of a renewed conflict.
Most of all raises the question whether North and South Korea will be insulated in any way from the growing tensions between Pyongyang and Washington? Should Trump return to the “maximum pressure” strategy of isolating North Korea, he may find that key partners such as China and South Korea are less inclined to back it.
28
After Trump's reversal of the Iran agreement there will be fewer and fewer nations that will pay much attention to what the US wants with respect to North Korea. China knows that all too well and reaps the rewards by (re)writing its own trade agreements with Europe while Donald is floundering aimlessly. Soon China won't care that much anymore what the US wants in its own trade negotiations, since by then China will control most of the global trade. Kim Jong Un is useful tool that ensures confusion and distraction keeps the US from what is really going on.
Best of all, despite being a murderous dictator, Kim manages to present himself with more stature on the world stage than our own "beloved supreme leader". That's quite an accomplishment, but coming to think of it, not so hard when one is being compared to Trump.
1
Trump's letter cancelling the Singapore summit was typical Trumpspeak. Basically, he says, "I am cancelling this meeting, but it is your fault, and you'll be sorry."
The only place i have ever heard word like this are on a school play ground, especially the, "you'll be sorry" part. Our President acts and speaks like a 5th grader.
25
He cancelled it because he thought Kim would and he wanted to look like the one in charge.
Yes, actually the letter reads like it was written by Trump himself, doesn't it? Probably dictated while tottering from the 9th to the 10th hole.
The can will no longer be kicked down the road, North KOrea must decide if they join the nations of the world or if they stay a pariah, a shadow, elusively creating chaos wherever it's tentacles touch.
President Trump smacked them in the mouth ten minutes after they blew up their nuke site. ( the site they blew up was no longer usable as previous tests had rendered it unstabile )
1
What I fear is that Trump is making America the pariah.
Trump. didn't smack North Korea in the mouth.He smacked himself and the United States in the mouth.
1
Hey, blame it all on Mike Pence. Were it not for lying to Mr. Pence, Mike
Flynn might still be national security adviser. Now it's Pence's fault that Mr Kim got mad and that Nobel Prize producing meeting had to be called off.
For a guy who is seldom seem doing anything except gazing rapturously at his boss, he sure gets around.
10
Ridiculous, both of them. Which one is the biggest clown? As an American living abroad I have to prepare myself (again) to receive nasty comments, even insults, from people over Trump's behavior.
13
No one here ever makes nasty or insulting comments to me about trump. Maybe it's the innate decency of the New Zealander. They think he's a big joke. I tell them there is nothing funny about it, so they only think I don't have sense of humour. In this case, I don't.
I would argue that this Op-Ed piece should have been entitled "Trump's Big Moment Is Upended by John Bolton." Indeed, I predicted as much in a comment I posted to Charles Blow's March 26, column entitled, "Donald Trump: Man at War."
In my argument, I stated, among other things, that the so-called "Summit" would never take place. In advocating this position I noted that in the 1980's, while Bolton was serving in the Reagan administration, North Korea averred that it would never negotiate with the
U. S. if Bolton was involved.
So faast forward to 10 days ago when Bolton,a bona fide Chickenhawk Vietnam Draft Dodger (" I couldn't see myself dying in a rice paddy in Southeast Asia.") and with Trump's blessing, warned North Korea would face the "Libya Model" if it refused to unlaterally "denuclearize."
And so today, Trump, channeling Casablanca's Captain Renault, told the world "I'm shocked, shocked to know that the Summit has collapsed." Is any reasonable person (excluding, by definition, all Trump supporters) surprised? I didn't think so. Thus, North Korea, with Bolton's gift, kept its word. Barvo Zulu John Bolton! If you had spent time in the Navy you would know that it means "Well Done."
11
Now would be an excellent time for Pete Souza to tweet or Instagram a picture of former President Obama's Nobel prize with the caption "This is how it's done." Throw in a #winning for good measure.
Dennis Rodman has had more successful meetings with Kim Jong Un than Trump has.
13
Other than North Korea, is there one actual source for the Times reporting that the destruction of a nuclear test site occurred?
This is a story about detonations of explosives in a few caves and some buildings, that's all.
1
Two steps forward, one step backward,
We might get there yet,
Rome wasn’t built in a day
3
Reportedly one of the factors in Trump's decision to abort the summit was that one of KJU's minions called VP Pence a "Political Dummy". I wonder how Crooked Hillary, Low Energy Jeb, Little Marco, Crazy Bernie, Lyin' Ted, Lyin' James Comey, Wild Bill Clinton, Jeff Flakey, Cryin' Chuck, Pocahontas, Mr. Magoo (Jeff Sessions) and...of course ... Rocket Man' (KJU) feel about Trump's name calling. Apparently is a bit thin-skinned when it comes to calling him names
12
The generosity of spirit shown by the release of three Americans and the destruction of the nuclear test site just isn't in the national character of North Korea. So what's going on?
1
China!
The worlds biggest game of liars poker.
5
isn't this the site that collapsed just a few weeks ago?
5
Several weeks ago it was reported that there were deaths from the collapse of several tunnels in the nuclear test site, and that there were deaths . It was believed that the setting off of the nuclear tests had destabilized the rock formations under the mountain test site, causing earthquakes and tunnel collapses. Their fear was that the whole mountain complex could collapse under the increase earthquakes.
So, since the Koreans were going to destroy the unstable complex anyway, why not invite the press and make a big show out of destroying something that was in the process of destroying itself? It makes them look good if people on the other side aren't paying attention. Un fooled everyone, including Trump, who is too stupid to read about what is going on, or the scientific issues involved, or to understand that he has been duped by a master. That the fate of our nuclear arsenal in in the hands of a temperamental uneducated buffoon who sits in the White House should scare us to death. The IC should tie him in a chair and make him listen to the Intelligence Briefs, so that he is not an ignorant moron, and can perhaps understand or comprehend a bit of what is going on in this dangerous world.
3
“Does this in any way affect my Nobel Peace Prize?”
8
A game between world’s two worst psycopaths. They survive by fear, division and hare mongering.
2
Trump had to respond to KJU’S threats to cacel, thus controlling the dynamics,of negation-it was as studied, classic diplomatic response. Now when NK resets the mee5ing, it will be on our terms. If they do not reset, then outr war ships will embargo them. If nukes are employed-it will be a shot ward—anyone care to bet on result?
So North Korea's decision to blow up tunnels and buildings at its nuclear test site ahead of the June 12 summit meeting with the US blew up in its face. How ironic.
1
Maybe they backpedaled because our Secretary of State didn't know their leader's first name?
3
Have we learned enough from the history of dealing with the communist countries?
It was reported that test site was severely damaged beyond use after the nuclear test last September. If it is true, the North Korean government just "destroyed" a facility that cannot be used anymore. But they gained tremendous knowledge of how to do it and they may be able to do it again as quickly as they want.
Like all communist countries, China included, North Korea does not obey any rules set by the rest of the world. The West is their enemy that needs to be destroyed in the final battle. The reason that they are "engaged" with the West is to learn they technology and their tricks, for which they can yield and even bow their heads but only temporarily.
Kim Jun-en of North Korea and Xi Jin Ping of China are playing the same game to keep their regimes in place and in the meantime, sucking the blood from their mortal enemies before the final battle.
1
Anyone who thinks Kim Jung Un was sincere is beyond delusional. The NK regime is much more calculating than the US counterpart. People who have watched NK past 30-40 years (at least) have clearly seen the pattern of deception. I don't think the negotiators in the WH are not well experienced with NK unlike the NK guys who have been doing this for decades. Ask Christopher Hill who was proud to witness the destruction of the cooling tower at YoungByun, only to realize later that he had been deceived by the show. With North Korea, it is better not to have a meeting unless the US is very well prepared. Without such preparation, we will always lose to North Korea. Moreover Kim's recent statements do not reflect genuine intention to give up their nukes.
3
they shouldn't have...they will regret
1
I am surprised Trump has time to consider North Korea, since he's obsessed with NFL players kneeling during the anthem.
6
Trump/Bolton think they can disable N.Korea's conventional and nuclear weapons with 'surgical strikes'.
But, they are on moveable trailers. They can be hidden inside caves, tunnels, natural or man-made.
So the US starts a war 'to prevent a war' (sic), and it will escalate.
Its easy to start a war, its not easy to end it, or even know how it will escalate out of control.
1
Did anyone but Trumpites actually think this charade was going anywhere? Kim is not giving up his arsenal, he insists on US withdrawal from the south, so who could possibly think a deal was in the offing? Kim is a conniving fox, and Trump is a hyena. Sorry, no offense meant to hyenas, but "the president" is so far out of his league on anything requiring more than 30 seconds of thought that this was still-born day one. Anyone notice Trump excels at cancelling things, and fails miserably at implementing anything? The tax deal is a sham, the only thing he's managed.
4
The reality is it was already destroyed by the earthquake in late April. Ck science journal. Damage was done. Why does the media not know this??
1
As always Trump doesn't want anybody to upstage him. He is obviously afraid that is about to happen. So what does he do he runs for cover and starts tossing stink bombs of his own. Obviously he did not use any of his so called "Great Talent" to help him in composing that childish letter he wrote. He really does not care about any of us. I'm sure when he is playing in the bathtub with his battleships, planes and toy missiles he is dreaming about all the work his companies will have rebuilding the world. To his liking of course. Look out here comes Planet Trump, not to a solar system near you but a solar system you are in.
So does this mean Trump won't be getting the Nobel Peace Prize, after his team already celebrated publicly about North Korea's nuclear disarmament?
1
Forgive the candor - but Dear Leader (ours, not theirs) now in all your faces as well as in all your heads...
At this point, NK would have no cause or legitimate grounds for ever again testing a home-grown...
> Rocket - what's the point, if the technology could be better bought...Does anyone think the Chinese wouldn't offer rocket and launch technology if NK wanted to go into the satellite business - perhaps offering Girl-band music video channels
> Nuclear device - would incontrovertibly invite pre-emptive and preventive strike...Would also hugely embarrass the Chinese...We couldn't control our Cuban neighbor because (except for the MLBers) they played for the other team...No similar excuse here
May still not stand – instantly creates full-unemployment for inspectors for nuclear bomb-making sites making absolutely sure absolutely no nuclear bombs are being made...
PS
Am dead serious - haven't seen such a deft camel-thru-the-needles-eye intellectualegalism since Roberts opined on ObamaCare - the students have become the masters...
PPS
Could threaten to stop selling them in-English science texts that don't teach evolution...Not exactly a move from Magnus - but perhaps best available gambit...Who prints such things, anyway???
The only question anyone should be asking about this latest spectacle of dangerous incompetency by Trump is:
How many people in both North and South Korea (and elsewhere) are going to die because the moron Trump and his equally incompetent conservative advisors are in way over their arrogant heads?
All's well that ends well. For the Chinese i.e. We Americans just became their suckers. Well played President Xi.
Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice shame on me.
It's good the POTUS did not pur America in the latter category.
Like a spoiled child who always goes just beyond that line to destroy himself - this little rocket man did. And the Chinese are laughing at him. They cannot absolutely do anything as we are now even watching even more closely.
This destruction of facility - why would America believe it.
As the POTUS said at the White House, our military is ready and he has assurances from our allies that they will bear the cost of delivering a Gaddafi to this mad man.
He needs to read our history on how we dispatch our enemies.
His number is up.
And luckily for us, with this stupid move encouraged by our other enemy, China - the timing is on us.
He had a chance to break out of his own prison.
But he is now a dead man walking.
Just one rocket launch will bring and I hope so, a swift response from our mighty military.
It's over.
So it appears the consensus is: Trump's a lying, war loving Dictator,
And Kim's a peace loving, benevolent , misunderstood Dictator?
Is that about right? Times readers?
Or Trump's Big Moment Was Upended by North Korea.
Trump and his junta are in way over their heads on this one. Neither the interest or any real ability to handle this properly. No confidence.
1
Please, let’s not give Trump any kudos for trying to distract us from the North Korea’s publicity stunt. The only “moment” Trump-land recognized was one to slink away from a deal that was all air, all clever charade by North Korea that everyone saw but Trump. Like the ridiculous fantasy of a Nobel Peace Prize. And it’s probably an excuse to knock off early for the holiday and head to the golf course.
Kim destroyed the test site because it was dangerous, unstable and unusable (Wall Street Journal, Al Jazeera and the New Yorker). Trump cancelled the summit because the adults convinced hum that his vaunted negotiating skills were a figment of his imagination where Kim was concerned. Each con man is trying to outbluff the other and the world remains a dangerous place especially when spoiled children have too much power.
1
Still folks are not getting it. The negotiations (which we are witnessing in real time) is not (just) with Kim and NK- it is, and has always been, with China.
China will serve as the guarantor of any agreement, and the (more important) 'indirect' negotiation (with China) is over trade.
The blowing up of a test site is irrelevant.
4
Errata: The headline should read, "North Korea Upends Trump's Big Moment." Kim loses nothing; he gains much. He has matched swords with the world greatest economic and political power, one that for decades, would not grant notice of his country's existence, despite North Korea's best and worst efforts. Kim engaged the US diploma at the highest levels; he met with the leader of South Korea, crossing the border for the first time.
Kim had Trump offering economic enticements, promising open markets and financial support. Trump's people gathered frequent flyer miles going to North Korea's capital. Kim showcased his country, and his willingness to begin a new era and dialogue.
Kim then waited for Trump to spring the trap. Informed by his own observations and China's, he that Trump's people could not resist the bellicosity and verbosity of threats that undermine diplomacy. It wasn't long in coming. Boom! The Libyan model emerged from men entrusted with national security acting like drunks spoiling for a fight.
This time, Trump couldn't get away with it. North Korea wasn't going to sit still. Trump loves to spin his failures as successes; this is his biggest yet! Right after embedded spies (he couldn't vet his own campaign?), this will become his most glorious narrative of blame, as he claims wins for hostage releases, previously done by Bill Clinton/Dennis Rodman! Meanwhile, Kim is redefined as a global moderate as Trump never engaged his repressive record on human rights.
12
Neither Trump nor Kim jong um tell the truth , it is all posturing . Not surprising at all since I suspect they had no intention of actually carrying out that meeting. Both are easily insulted and insecure bullies cut out of the same frayed and flawed cloth . The fat lady is still waiting off stage .
9
So, in marked contrast to the belligerent President Trump, the DPRK shows sincerity regarding what should be a world-wide phenomenon, a de-nuclearized, peaceful world, albeit retaining its store of nuclear weapons until such time as the rest of the nuclear weapons-powered countries decide to meet to agree to disarm, and do so. If the United States, as Trump said, cannot allow DPRK to possess nuclear weapons, then it would seem that the only way forward for DPRK to disarm would be as a part of an active consensus world-wide to accomplish this urgent accomplishment. This, because of the U.S.' irrational wish to retain power over other countries in just that way, the imperious possession of weapons of mass destruction, not to mention economic matters which contribute to this desire. What that says about the U.S. is that it is authoritarian to the core and cannot offer some sort of enhanced "freedom" to other countries no matter what the conditions happen to be. How disgusting!
8
Want a good conspiracy theory? Trump got Pence to make that absolutely mindless and totally threatening Libyan reference in order to blow the summit up since he knew three things: One..that he could never be prepared for the meeting in time because plans were to prepare him while he was playing golf because of his limited attention span..Two, because Bolton and the neocons want to bomb North Korea..not negotiate..and three..failure to "win" would affirm that "the King has no clothes"..
39
This removes a potential target if Trump were to order a tactical, (or theatrical) military strike on the NK's nuclear capabilities.
4
Nothing big here, destroying a useless, dangerous site is a pure show by NK. Add more severe sanctions on NK and their soulmate China. NK got too much publicity and recognition in the past several weeks with their drama.
8
How many more nuclear test sites to go? My musical brain just generates parodies for Trump vs. Kim, From John Adams opera Nixon in China, there is the Chairman Dances or something a little more bouncy: First you say you do and then you don't. Them you say you will and then you won't. Trump dances around Kim and makes sure that he makes the first move, Trump just canceled the meeting as though any sensible person would have guessed that it would never take place. His supporters will reason that Trump acted out of strength. And the illusory presidency continues.
6
as verified as Trumps income.
18
The destruction of the nuclear test site was nothing more than political theater. The location has been used so extensively that the mountain is stage of near collapse.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/apr/26/north-korea-nuclear-test-s...
Therefore the actual demolition of the site was more to contain the vast amount of contaminated soil within than a gesture towards future negotiations. It won't be surprising to discover in the near future that NK has begun the construction of new underground test facilities.
9
This satellite picture is a total hogwash and who better than the US can know that. If we could label old trucks moving at a snail's pace in a desert as WMD, this satellite might just be some old warehouses being blown up. Going to war with North Korea would be opening another Pandora's box in South East
like we did in the Middle East. Only difference would be it's going to be a nuclear war which would not only involve that region and within our borders too with loss of 100s of thousands of lives and generations lost in the future by nuclear effects.
7
There will not be a nuclear war in the Korean Peninsula. China doesn’t want that. Furthermore, the U.S. could destroy NK in the blink of an eye with conventional weaponry. Kim knows this. And more important, China knows it as well. Kim will cave. The two things he needs are economic help for his primitive society and a guaranteed assurance that he will be allowed to remain in power. China is the logical “power” guarantor; we can handle the rest...
1
Big deal. So they destroyed their nuclear test site. They don't need it anymore, and if they did they could build another one.
5
What a strange people we are !.. Donald Trump faces the world head-on and demands, demands!, that North Korea get rid of all nuclear weapons. Yet, we, the United States, have used nuclear weapons......the only country to ever do so. And, beyond that, we possess, right now, more nuclear weapons than all the other countries of the world, combined. It seems to me that the "open hostility" which Trump refers to rests directly upon the shoulders of the United States, as proven by that previous use, and as proven by how many weapons we own. "two-faced" is much too gentle a word to use to describe this situation............
46
Why are there so many people who hate the United States constantly posting on the NY Times site? Most New Yorkers do not hate their country, just fyi.
1
You are confusing hatred of Trump with hatred for the United States. Trump is not the United States. Trump hates democracy and the rule of law. Trump prefers Russia and Russian style rule. Get it?
Korea destroyed it's nuclear test site - by blowing up bombs inside it. Now they just have to rely on their new one.
3
1. Did journalists observing the Punggye-ri site demolition take measurements for radiation?
2. Enriched uranium, found in the air over Alaska in December 2017, was tied to the collapse of the Punggye-ri site in September 2017. http://www.news.com.au/technology/environment/north-korea-may-be-source-...
3. People living in Kilju, 20 kilometers away from the Punggye-ri site, were diagnosed with mysterious illnesses after the Punggye-ri site collapsed in September 2017, perhaps related to radiation exposure. https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20180109/p2a/00m/0na/011000c
4. Is the Punggye-ri site still spewing radioactive material into the atmosphere?
4
This is otherwise known as “giving someone the sleeves off your vest,”
13
Trump loses this game of chicken. First the administration sends in Bolton to poke North Korea with a stick: The Gaddafi comparison. Kim’s response? He frees Kim Dong Chul, Tony Kim and Kim Hak Song. Next Mike Pence doubles down on the Libya threat. Kim stages a public dismantling of their Nuclear test site. Everyone knows Trump in Singapore would be the laughingstock of the whole wide world. Still Trump could have waited until June 11th to chicken out. What’s the rush? Here’s the thing. It’s a 3-day weekend coming up. My bet is there’s a golfapalooza somewhere in Trumpland and you can’t be there and cramming for the meeting at the same time.
30
This reporting does not mention prior reports about a NK nuclear test site that was already so badly damaged by prior testing as to be essentially unusable. Whether the damaged site IS or IS NOT the NK test site referred to in this article, it should be clearly mentioned. C'mon, reporters, you need to have some memory of recent related events.
15
If the president has any interest in peace with North Korea, he should write a letter to Bolton, questioning the wisdom of his suggestion to treat North Korea with the "Libya model." Talk about a mood killer!
7
..and I have a bridge to sell you."
3
Isn't it common knowledge that their test site collapsed, reportedly killing many of their top scientists? That has been widely-reported.
6
I think a big part of the issue is when Pence said something about "Regime Change", which to me meant, Time for Kim to go, which I believe also indicates that we will remove him. And install our own guy. I can see why Kim and his people would come back with the Nuclear War statement.
3
Oh, great… A couple of belligerent children prone to dramatic excesses attempting to negotiate like grown-ups. There's no way that situation is not headed for a pile up in the ditch
5
i'm so relieved he wrote a letter instead of tweeting. He's maturing.
5
Surely you jest. The only thing that is maturing of Trump's, is the cess pool he keeps adding to.
1
"It is still not known whether the NK will give up its nuclear arsenal..."
Are you kidding me? Please stop with the foolishness. It IS known. It has always been known. North Korea will not give up its nukes. I find it impossible to believe that anyone who knows even a little bit of the history of that country ever thought they would disarm. I don't even believe that Trump ever thought it would happen.
This whole story is much ado about nothing. It was a chance for Trump to do what he always does - make specious claims and grandiose promises, beat his chest and have fools swoon and heap undeserved praise upon him.
11
The mountain site collapsed months ago. This a typical North Korean show. Its like destroying a warship that can not sail. I hope the world knows better.
10
Kim and Trump apparently use the same play book. "Art of the Deal"? They manipulate. Like beasts in the jungle, they beat their chests. They use hyperbole. They insult. They use the dramatic for show. That's how they communicate mood and position.
And KJU is no dummy, if he destroys test sites, it's because he doesn't need them. He knows his security can't be promised. Regardless the rhetoric. So it's inconceivable he will give up his nuclear weapons/program he's worked so diligently to create. We wouldn't give up ours, for the same reason. Survival. And Kim isn't suicidal.
So now that he has Trump over a barrel (he knows Trump is hungry for the feather in his cap a summit would provide) he will most likely use that as leverage, use Trump's own fragile narcissistic ego, to get what he wants. And that I believe is keep his weapons/program, but halt it's progress in exchange for economic aid.
So, acting hard to get, he's betting that Trump's neediness for acclaim will rev him up causing him to be more flexible than he might be otherwise. He's got Trump's number. He knows Trump's number one interest is himself.
Kim understands he himself is in a corner, a double bind. But he also knows Trump is too, blinded driven by dreams of a Noble Peace Prize dancing in his head. How this unfolds, will be an intriguing exercise to behold.
8
Two world leaders, both of whom carry hidden agendas, as tools of manipulation, of deceit. Trying their best to outfox each other. Both with fingers on the nuclear trigger. Does this look like a picture of working towards peace and friendship. It surely doesn't look that way to me. It's more like a duel for domination by two narcissists. Both seeking the constant adoration and submission of their own people, that they must have in order to squelch the self-loathing that is stuffed deep down in their wounded psyches. Their distorted sense of superiority informs their vain delusion of getting respect and admiration from the global community, they surely don't deserve. This is exactly the portrait of almost every despotic autocratic dictator that has come and gone from the world stage, having left a path of chaos, genocide, untold millions of lives lost, and total destruction in their wake. Let's hope that these two miscreant leaders don't duplicate the horrors of their murderous predecessors.
5
I've joked that trump's demeanor would lead to a nuclear war. I went so far as to write a song. Why does he have to prove me right to kill my jokes? (no pun intended)
North Korea 'destroyed' a nuclear site that was already reported to be inoperable due to earthquakes. This was a hollow gesture aimed at solely attaining a public relations advantage. Trump said he would not follow the path chosen by previous presidents, which made grand deals North Korea ignored or worked around. So all the recent palaver that Trump was walking into a trap which would elevate Kim on the world stage if he attended the summit, is now transformed into outrage that he has walked away from what was fast materializing as a bad deal?
Did anyone, anywhere ever think this was really going to happen? If so, I have a bridge I'd like to sell you. Good grief, it's all just been a sideshow that Trump happened to step into, in order to distract us from what is really going on. I'm sure he was as surprised as anyone when the talks actually started to look like they were going to happen, just like he was surprised when he actually became Presidents and then, "Oops! Now what do I do?" Trump would have been lost at a summit with Kim. He doesn't have the first notion of what is at stake or how to negotiate with him. He's probably relieved that he has an excuse for canceling.
3
" But Mr. Wright called the development on Thursday “a meaningful and pretty dramatic action nonetheless.”
For doubtful commentators which are bound to share their opinions here, I would ask them, what if anything has America done of any meaningful or dramatic action towards encouraging a resolution in regards to North Korea's initiative and South Korea's efforts in support and actions towards a breakthrough on this?
Just 2 things...both of them negative, hostile and very discouraging.
The 1st:Trump's disgraceful reneging of the signed and approved Iran Nuclear Agreement between America, Russia ,China, Europe , England and France as well as the opinion of almost every country on Earth.
And done despite the wishes of key allies, and despite Iran meeting all requirements it had to abide by as agreed.
Whatsmore, America has begun to impose the strongest sanctions on Iran for OTHER policies and actions America deems unacceptable and is doing so without even setting out exactly what they are and what Iran must change/do and halt whilst not even giving it the chance/time to do them even if it knew them or agreed!
Kim would be a fool to give America anything seeing all that.
The 2nd : Boltons Idiot statement that North Korea would be taken down the Libya Road and model as outcome after relinquishing its Nukes. Meaning a Horrible Death for Kim and a broken failed Country in turmoil.
Well done America, you couldn't convince a fish out of water back into it with THAT.
4
This would happen to be the nuclear test site that was effectively destroyed and/or otherwise obsolete, as a result of the damage from the various tests conducted there previously, right?
I'm no fan of either Trump or Kim, but I had always considered Kim's offer to destroy his test site an empty gesture. He's just doing what he would have done anyway, and biding his time until a new one can be built, likely with improved-upon (i.e. smuggled) technology.
5
What's gone missing in all these discussions is the state of that site, which was the basis of Kim's offer in the first place, as far as I can tell.
This seems ignorant. If the North Koreans realize the overused site is useless, it makes complete sense for them to pretend they're ready to stop testing. They couldn't continue anyway. It is typical of the gamesmanship throughout history.
They probably knew they'd gain points by exploiting Trump's arrogant self-love and stupidity.
But why oh why is our supposed free press unable to remind us that the site was degraded anyway?
4
Well the media can’t seem to remember that it was North Korea that made noises about canceling the meeting to begin with. All I hear from the media is their bleating about Trump’s face-saving warnings about canceling the meeting.
I understood from previous geological reports that the last test explosion effectively destroyed the utility of the test site. The closure is therefore merely theatrics. Why is this not discussed in current media reports?
13
Thank you! This needs to be brought up early and often. The talking heads don't seem to know this. Why?!!
6
Didn’t a recent Forbes article discuss this? After the mountain imploded North Korea signaled a willingness to meet with Trump and he played right into their hands.
3
Now that Donald the Con has cancelled his much discussed "summit", the two Korean leaders can go about negotiations without the pesky loudmouth amateur in the way.
Faux News --- where are you when we need you? LOL
16
Richard New York
Remind me again what progress President Obama or Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made on North Korea when they were in office? Answer: absolutely nothing
...............................................
There were many sanctions against North Korea imposed during the administration of President Obama.
President Obama is guilty of not coming up with the name of the leader of North Korea "little rocket man"
Remember according to the new policy of the current administration "Names will break bones".
The new administration has yet to bring new sanctions against Russia which is the major trader with North Korea.
6
So Mr Trump cancels the meeting, citing "open hostility" from North Korea recently. I am neither a trained psychologist nor a politics wonk, but as a mother and grandmother I am quite familiar with children accusing others of the various misbehavior of which they themselves are guilty.
73
Bravo!
The real story of news is follow up of "Trump lawyer 'paid by Ukraine' to arrange White House talks", and not that North Korea blew up a nuclear site that was no longer usable.
This could be the biggest story of corruption in the administration of a president for all time.
11
Multiple commenters claim Democrats are chagrined with Trump’s potential success with NK negotiations a la Mitch McConnell’s hopes for Obama. I for one would relish success. Trump will have sufficient failures and ugly past and present incidents to render him and his party impotent in coming elections.
3
A king that expects his subjects to approach on their knees silently is not a bad king, just a king. If Kim thought that blowing up a few worth tunnels could suffice for his keeping his big mouth shut about Mike Pence, he was wrong. Best not to try and hug the queen either.
All of this trump/kim stuff is just pretend. Can't we stick to news of real conflicts of real importance, like Taylor Swift and Kanye West?
6
North Korea announced the closing of an unusable nuclear test site and also gave Trump a lollipop. Trump considers this a double win.
15
Chinese President Xi and NK Dear Leader Kim obviously think they can sell bridges to nowhere to Trump.
5
Probably a trash landfill that he destroyed, not a nuclear site. Only a naive person believed Kim Jong-un was serious about meeting with Trump. He just made a fool of Donald Trump.
11
I can think of no one less able to successfully conduct international peace treaties than the 3 Stooges of Trump, Bolton, and Pence.
14
Don't forget Pompeo. https://warisboring.com/war-hawks-and-chickenhawks/
"The “old” team, Rex Tillerson and Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster, were flawed choices from the start, but Pompeo and Bolton seem like an instant formula for a war — or two or three of them.
"And keep in mind that we’re already actively fighting ***at least seven wars across the Greater Middle East and Africa.***
"Tillerson gutted the State Department and, had he stuck around, might have gone down as one of the worst secretaries of state ever to walk the halls of Foggy Bottom. Still, the former ExxonMobil CEO does seem to have tried to restrain Trump’s more extreme positions on the Paris climate accord and the Obama-era Iran nuclear deal. In addition, as his infamous “moron” comment suggests, he evidently wasn’t cowed by our bully-in-chief.
"McMaster was no prince, either. He helped craft a National Defense Strategy that all but declared a new Cold War on Russia and China. He was also to the right of reasonable on Iran and North Korea. Nevertheless, he is an intelligent man with genuine academic bona fides. I’ve met the guy and, even though we disagree on almost everything, he’s certainly preferable to a zealot like Bolton."
So North Korea releases hostages, they dismantle their nuclear site, and are rebuffed by Trump because he didn't like their "tone." When I heard that this summit was happening, I was honestly shocked and had a moment of, "Maybe 45 is about to actually do something positive with his term." *sigh* Nope.
16
It is my understanding that this facility imploded, at least a few weeks ago, from the underground testing that was done there - they didn't calculate the resiliency of the mountain to the tests correctly.
Also I agree, I don't see where N. Korea is a nuclear power - they really have not gotten anything right, even intercontinental ballistic missiles. So I think they come out looking pretty good - now people think of them as a nuclear p ower, which they are not, and also as willing to trade on their nuclear power, which they are also not willing to do.
N> Korea is going to continue to test missiles, Trump will continue to be an incompetent fool.
7
Okay, when the news came out of North Korea's first nuclear test, I remember reading in the paper that western experts said that seismic data was inconclusive in backing up the claim that North Korea actually had a functioning nuclear weapon. I assumed at the time that subsequent seismic data would confirm just how powerful North Korea's nuclear bombs were.
But here's the thing, maybe I missed something, but never, ever have I read any words remotely resembling "Data confirms North Korean possession of nuclear weapons." Instead, I've read press release after press release from North Korea. North Korea tests larger nuclear weapon, North Korea tests accurate missile, North Korea test hydrogen bomb. All I've read from the experts and the press in this country has been a sort of assumption that North Korea actually has workable nuclear weapons and accurate missiles, and on top of that are piled speculations of just how many weapons it has and how many it could deploy.
Here's my question: Are we any more certain of the number and power of nuclear weapons in North Korea than we were of the Bomber Gap back in the fifties and the Missile Gap back in the sixties?
5
YES. The US, South Korea and China all have scientists analyzing the atmospheric fallout from nuclear tests. Geologists working along the Chinese and South Korea border can extrapolate data from the seismic activity from their tests. If they're not testing high mega ton nuclear weapons then they must have the mother of all conventional bombs surpassing even the MOAB we dropped on Afghanistan.
Scientists monitor the drift of the fall out as well, this is why nuclear war is not just a regional problem. Drift has been detected as far as China. This is how we know any nuclear nation is performing tests, all of this stuff ends up in the atmosphere.
We know that North Korea has been supplied with nuclear technology through by Russia through Ukrainian proxies.
Over the years scientists have also been given access to observe North Korean facilities, it's not just press releases.
3
Kim "destroys" nuclear site and Trump says he is the greatest president since Lincoln.
I don't know which one is a bigger liar, it's a close call.
15
Lot's of comments poking fun at Trump. How about some comments poking holes in Obama's (lack of) foreign policy allowing NK to fully develop this dangerous ability?
Crickets..
3
Obama isn't the president anymore. Nothing can be done about the past. We're dealing with our current president and his decisions, which are completely his own.
8
So it's America' job to attack every country that develops nuclear weapons? What would you think if German, or France, or England, or Russia attacked us for that same reason? After all, America is the only country that has ever used nuclear weapons in war.
4
Nice job deflecting. Trump is handling a difficult situation -sometimes well, sometimes not - because Obama showed zero ability to.
There's just something weird about using dynamite to destroy a site that withstood many nuclear detonations.
12
It's all a matter of how deep and how big the explosion.
Michael Ottawa
People: Just for once, can we put aside our partisan beliefs and hope for a peaceful and lasting resolution to this long-standing conflict?
..........................
Yes we should trust a North Korean leader that had his uncle killed and his half brother killed. Leaders like this are reliable.
North Korea simply wants to get out of the sanctions.
4
Everyone who has been paying attention to the North Korean situation for more than a year really enjoyed the show but are wondering where the other sites are.
7
Oh man, this is too much. So Kim released the hostages, then tried to say America shouldn't get credit for the advancement in negotiations. Then Kim threatens to call off the meeting. Then he destroys the nuclear site while his underling calls Pence stupid.
So, Kim loses the leverage of threatening to leave the table, loses his hostages, loses a second nuke site and hasn't gotten anything that motivated him to advance talks in the first place?
I wonder if Kim will try to snag any of those journalists before they can get out of the country...I'm sure Trump would have those poor CNN "journalists" out of there faster than the collapse of the Tower of Pisa!
It's becoming apparent that Obama was so corrupt because he was so impotent without a stacked deck.
What?
2
How idiots make "deals." After North Korea's last nuclear test on September 3, 2017, seismic evidence indicated that the Punggye-ri test site had become dangerously unstable and unable to sustain any further testing. Kim then offers to "dismantle" the site as a "goodwill gesture" and Trump buys it, tweeting: "Thank you, a very smart and gracious gesture!" American intelligence knows that this "dismantling" is a sham designed to get concessions from a dangerously uninformed and self-absorbed administration. Kim is playing Trump like a cheap fiddle.
17
Theatre of the absurd. I don't believe for one minute that North Korea poses any real threat. This little play will benefit both parties. We will be at war with Iran during this little sideshow. Probably close to the election. This is all yellowcake folks!
3
Back in April, Chinese scientists and multiple UK media outlets (the Guardian, Independent, etc) reported that North Korea's nuclear test site had collapsed and was unusable. I've assumed that Mr. Kim's pledge to stop testing was an effort to make lemonade out of lemons. And which Trump predictable spun to be a "win" for his bluster.
Perhaps this was covered by the US press, but if so I haven't seen it. If true, it makes for an entirely different story.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/apr/26/north-korea-nuclear-test-s...
33
Donald Trump, being the biglyest bestest President in the history of the world. caused that mountain to collapse and end all North Korean nuclear activities.
Only Donald Trump can do that. Watch for it on the new Donald Trump Miracles TV show coming this summer on Trump Cable.
9
It was covered by the legitimate press here in the USA. I'm not sure how many were paying attention.
10
I saw it in the WaPo. My class was discussing "Atomic Diplomacy", albeit during the Cold War. A student brought the article to our attention. Added an interesting layer to Mr. Kim's 'concessions' and to class discussions these past few weeks...
4
In the last testing of North Korea of a nuclear weapon there was large destruction of the nuclear site.
North Korea saw it would be good propaganda that they were destroying the nuclear site.
North Korea did not allow international experts to view the nuclear site since the experts would have seen the prior large destruction of the site.
7
This was a story I read in the Guardian a few weeks ago, but then I never saw anyone follow up on it. I still don't know whether it's true.
1
Kim doesn’t need the US. He can negotiate with China. N Korea is a potential market for the PRC. Tourist Hotels and the beautiful country side would bring development to N Korea in return for cheap labor. N Korea will be another One Road piece of China.
7
It's difficult to imagine a head of a sole super power is unable to cerebral thinking. It seems thought process is from spinal cord!
We are seeing the sorry spectacle of the Commander In Chief of the most powerful nation running around like a headless chicken!
What an end to the 18 lawmakers recommendation to Nobel committee that president should receive 2019 prize ‘in recognition of his work to end the Korean war’
One would think that America is a nation of extraordinary immature politicians!
8
What exactly does “after further removal of ... personnel” mean? Sounds rather ominous—that removal part.
1
Tony Francis Vancouver Island Canada
Many Democrats seem to really want these talks to collapse in failure. Their anti Trump vitriol has crossed into some form of insanity.
.............................
Insanity would be meeting with a North Korean leader that had his uncle and half brother killed.
Trump should be imposing new sanctions on all nations that are trading with North Korea, and Trump should request the Congress to give billions for the development of systems to destroy every intercontinental missiles that would be launched by North Korea, or any other nation.
Bob, Trump cut taxes and massively increased the budget. Trump's budget has billions in it for tactical nuclear weapons and the administration has begun the process of loosening constraints on the use of nuclear weapons.
The Vitriol of alt right hate mongers that enabled Trump is destroying this country's standing in the world and threatens the very existence of life as we know it.
Any sane person in the United States should be absolutely terrified by Trump, the Republican Congress our Secretary of State and head of NSA. The US is a rogue nation being run by a lawless dictator with virtually no moral or ethical restraints, with a Congress and Supreme Court abdicating their Constitutional duty to check his power.
3
Oh God, yes, so true, so very true. And here we sit, waiting for the November elections so we can begin to oust Trump, Pence, and members of Congress....maybe charred bodies, reeking of radiation, may make it to the polls, the rest of us stone dead.
Possibly someone could do a story on how this facility was destroyed by a natural event. Not by N.K.
3
So. Here we are, right back where we started. Except the Kims have nuclear bombs. Who knows how many? Not you or me. Not Trump. Media reports now put the number at 60. 60?! How did that happen? Simple. Our government and media are now able to easily lie and make up whatever number they want. Shades of Iraq and the phantom WMD.
Bolton will soon be intimating the DPRK has multiple ICBMs with MIRVs targeted on your favorite city, at the ready for launch on a moment's notice. Here comes the war you so desperately desire, Mr. President. All the pawn and all the actors are in place. What's stopping you? Do you think Congress will grow a spine and shut down your little war machine?
"We'll see what happens."
8
It was pretty much unusable after all those tests anyway. Look for a new test location in the next 3 months.
9
President Trump is to be commended for causing this to happen. It is sign North Korea is afraid of American military might. Now all he needs to do is show a some effort to clean Syria out of Russia, Iran and Hezbollah.
1
One of the few things on the planet that is worse than trusting Trump with the presidency, is trusting North Korea with nuclear bombs. If you don’t believe they are likely to sell weapons, materials or design details for cash someday, you’re kidding yourself.
13
So Trump unilaterally withdraws from the Iran agreement, because he says Iran is in violation of it, in spite of the fact that all independent inspections indicate that Iran was complying. Yet Trump is crowing on Twitter that North Korea has demonstrated that they have destroyed a nuclear facility. This appears to be two con men working us and themselves, however my money is on Kim. Trump's ego will bring him down.
26
People: Just for once, can we put aside our partisan beliefs and hope for a peaceful and lasting resolution to this long-standing conflict?
4
This has happened before. Kim Jong-il, the father of the current leader, dismantled a Nuclear Tower in 1994 in order to have sanctions lifted, which they were.
More than a year later it was discovered that North Korea had continued a secret Uranium Enrichment program the entire time. The apple doesn't fall................. (well you know).
10
Remind me again what progress President Obama or Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made on North Korea when they were in office? Answer: absolutely nothing - they did and achieved no progress at all, beyond giving North Korea's leadership the breathing room required to acquire functional, deliverable nuclear weapons. How ironic that the first NK-SK summit, pending formal conclusion of the Korean War, and incipient de-nuclearization of the Korean peninsula is occurring under President Trup, not the ineffectual President Obama (least deserving Nobel Peace Prize winner of all time).
4
Well, what surprises me is that the most favoured comments take no notice of the absurd statements of your president. Of course Kim is rude etc. but Donald Trump accusing Kim is really a laugh...
29
"North Korea did not invite any independent nuclear monitors to verify the dismantlement."
The Times is of course correct in the implication in the above statement from its home page. When it comes to North Korea, as with Iran, the rule has to be "Trust but Verify," with the emphasis on "verify."
But there is a an unfortunate bias evident in the Time's coverage. The paper's tone was much more supportive of President Obama's efforts in Iran that it is regarding President Trump's efforts with North Korea.
2
I can't wait for the joy it will bring me to know the North and South Koreans will arrive at their own peace independent of the Trump administration. In the best of all worlds, this is as it should be, since it is their land, their people and we are just finaglers.
7
Since the Nuclear NonProliferation Treaty went into effect in 1970, the US and the other nuclear-weapons states had the obligation, Article 6, to negotiate complete disarmament of their weapons. All have ignored that obligation and the corporate media don't mention it. The US, Soviet Union, Britain, France and China were the only nuclear-weapons states at the time. Nuclear war, the greatest ever threat to civilization, won't disappear if North Korea gets rid of its nuclear weapons. The other 8 nuclear-weapons states must also. Blocked from above by the immorality of "might makes right," it's the responsibility of the grass roots movements to save us.
3
Glaring omission in your article: scientists are publishing in the peer-reviewed a journal of the American Geophysical Union that September's test, there was "a near-vertical on-site collapse near the nuclear test centre" -- potentially making it unusable. http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-43894394
7
Closing down something that was already closed because of collapses in the tunnels and wasn't being used is simply to give president Trump a bone he can wave. Getting nothing and giving something are a hallmark of this presidents negotiation style. The North was never going to denuclearize and it won't give anything else if this ill advised meeting goes forth.
6
They didn't shut it down. It was destroyed in an accident months ago when it collapsed.
5
Can anyone with an iota of sense imagine Obama, or even George W. Bush, establishing a road to negotiations with North Korea that resembled anything close to the chaotic mess Trump has created to get a "big deal" with the DPRK? If either of these former presidents operated in Trump's manner with respect to the DPRK, Congress and the voters would be expressing shock or outraged -- or laughing their heads off.
The WH is now a nuclear waste site (ditto the State Department and the National Security Advisors group, among others), so at this point all I can do is laugh in the face of potential Armaggedon.
8
So the guy who rushed in to a meeting he wasn't even invited to, and accepted and agreed to meet face to face in a bilateral summit with a despot who kills his own citizens who dissent. Has just blown up said summit because he didn't like the way they dissed his VP (because as we all know, nobody talks bad about his VP but him!) Is there anyone who finds this President credible?
8
I'm sure that the nuclear program is completely shut down and the world will have no more problems with North Korea moving forward. As we know, Un is as true to his word as Trump.
6
Considering the instability of the Washington regime, who would blame the NK to reveal the least possible? Their decision was further legitimized by 45's refusal to meet with Kim.
3
You bury the info about the site possibly having become unusable and about how they re-opened a previous site they demolished. The story is that it may or may not be a show, but past experience would indicates that it's a show.
We are watching negotiations by two game-players. And the Trump praise sounds, as usual, like something done for an outcome rather than being genuine.
3
I like to think that informed and concerned readers have not failed to detect the MSM pattern about this issue.
Anytime a peaceful rapprochement between the two Koreas becomes nearer, more likely, the MSM rush in immediately to attempt to seed doubts and skepticism in people's mind.
When North Korea, to the general surprise, announced the planned disruption of this test tunnel, MSM quickly stepped in to point to the country's unreliability, the fact that there was no guarantee that the site's dismantlement would shut down their nuclear program etc.
In short, a transparent attempt to emphasize all the lingering questions in the deal and downplay as much as possible the obvious, striking progress toward a peaceful outcome.
In a clean-cut and revealing example, MSM have obsessively reported completely unproven allegations that the testing facilities had actually collapsed already, an assertion which is actually laughable in so many ways if you look at the facts on the ground.
Not only democracy, but a peaceful coexistence of nations also depend on a watchful citizenry.
Recent developments in the Korean peninsula represent an historical opportunity to finally settle a ludicrously persistent legacy of the cold war.
We must be vigilant to make sure that the war party, that cuts across partisan lines, does not compromise that outcome.
2
MSM is only reporting what we know. I've live long enough to see this pattern from Kim Jong Il to his son.
How many times has North Korea played the world with march together with South Korea during the Olympics, touting unification talks?
The reason why "everyone" was skeptical is because this is the same Charlie Brown playbook North Korea has been using for decades. There's no partisanship here, the only people entering into this entire clown show are Trump supporters who are truly blinded by his spectacle. If it was any other person you would see them lambasted by the public.
MSM was reporting what geologists and nuclear scientists have monitored. This was reported in China, Japan and South Korea. Congratulations you've fallen for Trump's brainwashing.
Minting commemorative coins? Planning out the withdrawal of American troops even before talks began? What peaceful outcome are we talking about? Who in their right mind would voluntarily give up their only tool to stay alive. Remember what happened to Gaddafi, Ceausescu, Saddam. Do you think Kim Jong Un will just walk away?
Seeding doubts? Really?
5
There were credible reports that repeated nuclear tests had made the site unworkable prior to today. There is absolutely nothing preventing the North Koreans from simply opening a new testing site - its just a piece of ground you can dig a hole in. This also does not prevent North Korea from using the weapons it has already built or from building more. I guess this will be seen as progress by the same people who thought Trump should get the Nobel just for talking ... because no one has talked to the North Koreas before ever (except they have).
Kim seems to be toying with Trump, and not much else.
12
I don't buy it. This guy is too devious to allow this to happen. He wants something - most likely a lift from sanctions, but that does not erase the fact that he lusts for nuclear and military power. Kim is cut from the same cloth as Trump when it relates to egomania, but he remains far more dangerous. Will there be a meeting or not? This verbal ping-pong being played is but a ruse. If, with a big IF, it occurs, it will come to naught I would wager.
4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cuCzpN4X8Vg
Check this absolutely. Threats in 2013 by congressman to nuke Iran and journalist comments
Many Democrats seem to really want these talks to collapse in failure. Their anti Trump vitriol has crossed into some form of insanity.
6
Your hero just shot himself in the foot. Again. Say goodbye to the Nobel. He couldn't deal his way out of a paper bag. "The truth? You can't handle the truth!
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/24/world/asia/north-korea-trump-summit.h...
2
It only took thirty minutes for your nonsense to become inoperative. Perhaps Trump's anti-Trumpism is a form of insanity.
Two quotes come to me: "There's a sucker born every minute." (P.T. Barnum) and "Never give a sucker an even break." (W.C. Fields). Go, Kim!
2
He's playing with Trump, like flirting before a date. Trump's so in love (with himself) that he's falling for it.
5
Americans as per usual have geopolitics backwards.
The best thing for the Korean peninsula is a few nukes in the hands of the North. What is wrong there is having any US troops whatsoever, nukes or not. Instead we think that our troops are needed because of the nukes, it's completely backward from reality.
Nukes enforce the peace. Troops agitate opponents. Why Americans don't know this is a related to the failed nature of our fake news system and would take a full exposure of neocon & neoliberal intellectual corruption.
Because Americans are bamboozled they trust the fake for-cash media, and we have constant saber rattling, at constant high cost to the taxpayer. Money that should go to education goes to the military, our kids get dumber every year, which is fine with the mind manipulators of fake information business.
3
We know that Trump has already referred to Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un as a “smart cookie,” which is no doubt true, but “gracious?!” What’s next? “kindly” for Vlad” or “humanitarian” for Dutertre? Will Trump ever stop lavishing praise on dictators? I doubt it, particularly when it comes to himself.
6
When NK allows international inspectors to view this site, I'll believe it. Till then call me a skeptic.
7
Scientist and nuclear observers reported months ago that this test collapsed. So Kim Jong Un is selling Trump a collapsed bridge, and like the rube he is Trump is swallowing it up.
It is truly remarkable how Congress is giving free reign to a person so unqualified and so uninformed on a topic that effects the half the human population. The dereliction of duty from Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell is stunning.
12
Typo report:
North Korea announced last month that it would end all nuclear and long-range ballistic missile tests as well as close the Punggye-ri test site. It said it no longer needed to condct
1
This is unhelpful propaganda. Nowhere in this piece can you find any evidence that anything of value happened. But it will fill people's head with presumptions.
To understand what happened here, approach it as a chess move you don't quite understand ie as though the North Koreans are consistent and intelligent. They've always played the cards in their hand very wisely, and so with this too. So what would be wisest?
One should surmise that they've cost themselves nothing - the site is worthless to them anyway. So make a big deal about "destroying" what is worthless, like selling an old horse for the meat. The US press will come running because this is income to a newspaper. The pity is the lack of intelligent skepticism (not cynicism, there is plenty of that here) as this is reported in a fashion that will boil down what NK wishes the public to think.
2
Oh please. This guy isn't giving up anything. Trump is being punked. He'll just have to return that Nobel prize that he already awarded to himself.
5
He could save on freight and box it up with Obama's. Still a total mystery on how he won that.
1
Kim is a lot smarter than Donald.
2
NK will not voluntarily destroyed their nuclear test site unless the site has probably collapsed and is of no further use. NK is probably waiting to see Trump's tweet to see if he buys into this sham, which he most likely will because he so badly wants talk to happen on 6/12 and his "Nobel Peace" prize!
2
"No experts where allowed to see the site"
That's how Trump runs his administration.
7
As this underground test was already crumbling down, and possibly not safe to use anymore, this was a great opportunity to close it down and look good in the eyes of the world.
Mr. Kim Jong-un, playing to please his adversary, gains leverage at a minimal cost.
1
At the point, evidence shows that when it comes to honoring treaties, the US government is as trustworthy as the North Korean.
What's the point of all the con job?
1
I mean, we do want to denuclearize NK, but is KJU even trustworthy?
If you believe that Kim has completely destroyed his nuclear testing sites, I have a beautiful wall on the Texas border I would like to sell you.
3
I don’t care how many monitors we have in North Korea, I still don’t trust them, the only safe guard we can have that they won’t use nuclear weapons is the strong deterrent by the United States.
3
I don't care how few monitors we have in the White House. I still don't trust them. Can we safe guard against the use of nuclear weapons by the only nation that has ever used them and which is now being run by a madman who argues with himself on a daily basis?
3
Nobody else who has them is testing nuclear bombs anymore, because the technology is cut and dried. Testing is necessary only to establish that a nation has created the necessary supply chain.
3
The war mongering GOP need to mind their own business. Russia and China are the biggest bad guys on the planet and the free world has managed to accept them and their nuclear arsenals for decades now. Let NK and SK handle their piece keep Trump away so he won't unravel it all this with his big mouth. I am with Pope Francis suggestions talk at all costs is the only way to achieve lasting peace even with the biggest bad guys on the planet. Guess what it has worked for decades.
2
I'm just not buying this. If he's actually shut down this site, it's only because it's not viable anymore. Otherwise, I have no doubt that he's left a way to quickly reopen it. It's already been reported that the test site had caved in. If that's the case, I expect he's shutting it down for safety. There is no way this man is going to give up his nuclear ambitions.
Many Americans may all look at Un and think he's crazy, but he's not stupid.
1
It has already been reported that there was a flurry of activity at the site prior to the staged event. That activity included massive removal of equipment, etc. by the truckload. For once the statement , "nothing to see here" is true.
As the lies continue to stockpile, the proverbial finger suffers from chronic arthritis from the continuous pulling.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Trump's good friend, Mr. Xi laughs up his sleeve at the clown in our WH.
3
These de-escalation tactics by Kim must come from a place of confidence. I believe it might be the confidence that once he becomes more partially open to talks and negotiation he will have the backing of China and probably Russia as well to make sure his rule is not questioned.
That being said, you kind of have to give it to Trump. It takes a lunatic to reason with a lunatic. We cannot sit here and say that he has had no part in these developments, albeit in an absurd fashion.
Boy, do these guys (N Korea, China and Russia) know how to play their useful idiot of a president. The overseas laughter is deafening.
2
Can you imagine how this story would have played in the New York Times if Barack Obama were still president? OF course, that wasn't going to happen - he spent eight years being totally cowed by North Korea.
But when President Trump pulls it off, it's a case of "mixed signals" that "likely helps China the most" and "could be reversible."
This newspaper hurts its credibility when it can't honestly report anything that happen under this administration
5
Another cheerleading comment that has been rendered inoperative in thirty minutes by our Yoyo-in-Chief. And yes I can imagine it.
2
A positive move on the part of the DPRK, which should facilitate meaningful talks, in the event that the United States leadership, in which internal disagreement unfortunately seems to reign, desire such. This step contributes significantly to the goal announced by Messrs Kim and Moon after their recent meeting, i e, «the complete denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula». Alas, the above article, like so many others in even the more responsible media in North America and Europe, seems to interpret this denuclearisation goal as applying only to the peninsula's northern half. For peace to finally come to Korea, more than 64 years after the signing of the Armistice Agreement of 27 July 1953, all nuclear-weapons systems are going to have to be removed and their re-introduction banned, from both sides of the DMZ. It remains to be seen whether Messrs Trump, Pompeo, and Bolton, et al, are willing and able to negotiate in a meaningful manner to attain this goal....
Henri
1
I want to see those videos. I went looking for them and they are not out yet.
From South Korea Newspaper this morning.
"The North said the international reporters would be allowed to transmit articles and footage only after returning to Wonsan, in North Korea’s southeastern Kangwon Province, where a temporary press center was set up - meaning their coverage would have a time lag of some 20 hours."
from CNN:
"A North Korean official has lashed out at US Vice President Mike Pence. Choe Son Hui, a vice-minister in the North Korean Foreign Ministry, said: "Whether the US will meet us at a meeting room or encounter us at nuclear-to-nuclear showdown is entirely dependent upon the decision and behavior of the United States."
In other words:
- NK has no intention of giving up its existing nuclear weapons.
- Trump has been so blinded by his own ego that he misinterpretted what NK has been saying all along.
- They've been playing with Trump all along; and he's fallen for it.
- Now, NK has the upper hand, because it looks to the rest of the world like they've made conciliatory gestures, but the US remains bellicose.
- In fact, Trump's/Pence's/Bolton's hardline stance and inflammatory rhetoric has perhaps made matters worse, because NK can now use it as an excuse to ramp up their own bellicose threats.
Mission accomplished! Now, where's that Nobel Peace Prize that trump deserves?
After building nuclear weapons capable of reaching the U.S., North Korea has bent a few of their screwdrivers.
So relieved!
Watching this vapid duel between one fake-news dictator and another is nauseating. What's next, a big-time wrestling smack down with sequined costumes and fake folding chairs?
2
This gesture may or may not be meaningful; either way, it is beside the point. This not the way you negotiate the normalization of relations with a heretofore rogue nation, by allowing them to set the terms, the time table and the verification methods, especially as related to the single most important objective, de-nuclearization. Any meaningful steps taken by North Korea must be determined DURING bi-lateral negotiations, not BEFORE, as must all observations and verification of compliance. Anything short of this is no different than your kid telling you he's cleaned his room in exchange for going outside to play, without letting you go in to check if all he did is shove everything under the bed.
North Korea has a zero credibility track record when it comes to negotiating its nuclear capabilities, complying with agreed to roll backs, or even being honest about what it is doing. There is no reason to believe Kim is behaving "graciously" (unless you're angling for the Nobel Peace Prize), and given yet another sudden 180 degree turn, all the more reason to view this move as suspicious.
An intelligent response would quietly thank Mr Kim for his gesture, while making it clear that in no way does it represent movement toward or within any denuclearization negotiations. He must be made to understand that real progress can only be made at the negotiating table, with agreement by both sides. Anything short of this promises to provide him a way out if he doesn't like what he hears.
17
Oh, no. This is terrible news for Democrats. Trump actually seems to be making progress with North Korea. But perhaps there is still hope that it will all fall apart.
9
Donald's getting played like a 5 string banjo and doesn't know it. Instead he's running around with the Nobel Peace prize dancing in his massive ego when he had nothing to do with their decision - if it really IS a decision. Instead an already blown up complex serves NK's needs by showing us that he blew it up again, this time on purpose. I wouldn't trust this guy for one inch, same for Donald.
17
Can you see Kim settling for a lifetime free pass to stay and play at Trump resorts?
The US and DPRK haven't even exchanged ambassadors. Trump has put the cart ahead of the horse.
12
Didn't take long, did it? Will you also be singing a new tune?
4
It looks like North Korea got just about everything it needs from the West: two meetings with Mr. Pompeo, meetings in Beijing, positive spin from the release of three detained US citizens, and personal attention from Mr. Trump.
Km Jong-un will explain the failure of the summit to materialize thusly:
"North Korea courageously gave the American side several goodwill gestures, after our brave and glorious leader Kim Jong-Un succeeded in scaring the USA with the NK nuclear arsenal; Washington was so frightened that theyt ent Mr. Pompeo to Pyongyang to beg for our understanding! Despite NK goodwill, the Americans decided to abandon the summit, out of fear of Kim Jong Un's masterful negotiating style!"
3
North Korea also won't allow international inspectors to verify its claims. And North Korea is really trustworthy, so we can believe this. Right? Right???
6
Trump is being "trumped" by N. Korea, which has for decades been playing nuclear chess with the world. They increase their nuclear research/technology, we apply sanctions, they "restrict" said research/technology, we give them what they want, and it starts all over again. Anybody who has paid *any* attention to how N. Korea operates could have seen these latest events coming down the pike weeks ago.
3
In negotiations like these, every step is incremental and designed to build trust. Kim said he would destroy the test site and it appears that he has. But, as Kim has said, North Korea has become a nuclear power so there was no need for further tests. Trump must move forward based on this reality. Trump, Pence and Bolton reveal a fundamental misunderstanding of the state of play on the Korean Peninsula every time they open their mouths. There is no military option that does not result in the deaths of many, many thousands of innocents, so why keep making threats. The biggest obstacle to the summit taking place at this point is the chaos created by Trump. The best incremental step for Trump to take is to just stop talking until he arrives in Singapore.
27
Cats and mice. This resembles negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians. Netanyahu and Trump: game players when we need diplomats. L&B&L
We have a dictator and an egoist; we do not have to make the dictator desperate (otherwise he would become deranged to prove his smartness) and the egoist glum (otherwise he would become a crusader for his satisfaction). We should candidly celebrate this achievement as a collaboration of these two phenomenal men.
Isn't that what you're supposed to do with Nuclear test sites ? I understand they were having a lot of trouble doing it in the past
1
Kim Jung un has become quite the consummate showman, latest case in point the dismantling of the already expended Punggye-ri nuclear test site. This token move in no way diminishes the nuclear weapons threat NK so doggedly and methodically assembled and brazenly put on spectacular global display.
Clearly our ego driven POTUS seriously jumped the gun making the likelihood that he will be substantially outmaneuvered all the more likely as the Korean situation unfolds.
3
I believe this was the same site the Chinese said was damaged beyond repair by the last nuclear test, creating someway of an empty jester, promising to destroy an unusable site.
Oh well
3
The president of the United States referring to a brutal dictator and his regime as "gracious." Put out on his twitter feed to the masses. The man for whom TV is reality.
We don't need monitors placed in every home as in Orwell's 1984. People willingly and happily plug in to the propaganda machine all on their own.
2
The United States destroyed plenty of nuclear test sites, using nuclear weapons. They're tremendously effective at leaving very little behind.
1
Kim’s didn’t give anything up, the site had serious geological issues but he’s playing Trump by appearing “gracious” to the world.
Trump is projecting weakness from the White House with his eagerness to win that Nobel, Kim knows this and it’s embarrassing for Americans to watch this go on.
6
This has all the trappings of a publicity stunt. No experts were invited. The media was invited to record and spread the news of a stunt that went unverified. Smells extremely fishy to me.
4
Has it come to anyone's attention that this alleged site destruction is a coverup of a nuclear accident at the location? Then again, maybe it was an old site, and the real facility is somewhere else? Squirrel ...look over there.
6
Wasn’t there expert analysis that said that NK had done irreparable damage to their nuclear test site after their last round of tests and that it was beyond use? Wasn’t this a point of speculation as to why Kim was so willing to suspend his nuke program?
Personally, I think this was just a show put on by Kim for a gullible group of reporters and a gullible President Trump. I’m sure he will be tweeting about it this morning. I’m sure he will take it as a sign that Kim is sincere. I’m sure that Trump is being played.
7
Isn't this the site that experts thought already suffered cave ins and wasn't operable?
4
Options:
1. A true gesture of good faith, blew up only working test site
2. Free credit, test site was damaged beyond use after last collapse and another test site would have needed to be constructed anyway
3. There are other nuclear test sites already and blowing up a damaged one shows goodwill without affecting the program
Or the likeliest option is that they simply don't need to perform nuclear tests anymore. Israel, India, Pakistan, and South Africa all became nuclear powers with fewer confirmed nuclear tests than North Korea.
18
likely not 'working'
Whether this was an accident or intentional act, it is a good thing. Does NK still have a stock pile of nuclear bombs? May be or may not. We have to have some faith that NK is telling the truth for the peace treaty. No one can guarantee that Trump-Bolton-Pompeo will not go nuts and bomb NK. NK has to have some faith that others in the US keep Trump on check. Both sides have to approach this with cautious optimism.
North Korea and the Chinese have offered the Trump administration (and the world) concession after concession after concession both economic and material yet hard boiled Americans are unable to see this.
Mr Trump is a reflection of how nervous and scared Americans have become. So much so that we can't help ourselves any more, or our efforts to do so are causing us and the world more harm then necessary.
1
Trump doesn't need to verify this because all he wants is a public statement that North Korea has made a concession. That's all his supporters need too. It doesn't matter if this facility was shuttered decades ago and their bombs are in new places.
3
Of course they did. And I've got a bridge to sell them.
1
When NK was doing underground testing they caused an earthquake that damaged this facility. They are simply blowing it up now. It is no longer of use to them. That should be reported. This is not a good will gesture of any kind,.
7
“North Korea allowed a select group of journalists from Britain, China, Russia, South Korea and the United States to watch its engineers destroy and close tunnels in its mountainous Punggye-ri test site, where the country has conducted all six of its nuclear tests. No independent outside nuclear monitors were invited to verify the dismantlement of the site.”
Well, maybe it’s me, but after I read that North Korea “allowed a SELECT group of journalist” in the same sentence with “NO INDEPENDENT OUTSIDE nuclear monitors were invited to verify the dismantlement of the site” I couldn't help but have suspicions and doubts as to the honesty, integrity and truth of North Korea’s statement or agenda. In a scenario like this, either there is full transparency or there isn’t. If Kim Jong-un has nothing to hide, why not invite independent outside nuclear monitors?
I have about as much faith and trust in Kim Jong-un’s words and actions as I do Donald Trump’s.
8
Neither Trump nor Kim are reliable, so I don't trust either one of them.
4
"North Korea invited mostly TV journalists to ensure that its action was broadcast worldwide." Seems Kim knows how to please our TV addict, as he will certainly have enjoyed the show, made just for him. It did not matter, that is was supposed to be caving in already under the strain of of all these blast tests...
Kim is smart, he knows how to play Trump like a violin.....
The TV president, simply un-presidented...
Sort of an empty gesture since they mistakenly blew it up with their last 10K explosion.
It was already unusable, so why not make a show of it?
So if N. Korea did not invite any independent journalists/scientists to watch this, how can it be verified? Why would Kim go forward and not let it be verified? Because he's not trustable and will try his very best to get away continuing to snooker the world - and especially Trump, one of the most easily snookered mountains of flesh the world has ever seen. Believe me, would I lie to you?
1
As many readers have pointed out, there have been a number of articles published over the past year or so to the effect that NK's test mountain was already in danger of collapse from the tests already done under it. These articles also agreed that such a collapse threatened to release substantial radioactive contamination that might even drift into China.
Unless the Times somehow knows that all of the former assessments were false, why publish such a misleading article and with an even more misleading headline? Yes, you did mention the previous assessments, but only in one paragraph about 2/3 of the way into the article. Even that paragraph was written in a very indirect and deflecting way.
This pattern of the press rewarding authoritarian leaders for making misleading statements is part of our current problem with fake news.
2
Strongly agree. You've expressed my sentiments about this article exactly.
The headline and the easily overlooked and minimized reference to the previous collapse of the test site have me exasperated.
Could the NYT please address the veracity or doubts about the test site collapse issue in a prominent fashion?
Why was the initial story of the probable collapse buried in both the Washington Post and the NYT and why do I see no articles bring up that collapse as possibly the sole reason for Kim's very sudden change of approach.
North Korea explodes some things, in an unverifiable way, at a site that was unstable and past its usefulness. This is not progress, this is just a show.
35
Trump will proclaim a victory and tout his negotiation style.
4
Whether exploding the test site was meaningful is beside the point. The meeting would have gone ahead if Trump had kept his mouth shut and told his subordinates to do the same, as any competent administration would have done. This certainly isn't progress but calling it "just a show" when Trump is the star of a reality show that passes for a presidency is laughable.
As other commentators have already noted, the site was reportedly compromised months ago after what was thought to be the test of a powerful H-bomb. At the time, nuclear testing experts said further testing at that site would have lead to serious escapes of radiation into the atmosphere which could have imperiled nearby Chinese cities. In my mind, this is a further indication North Korea has a significant stockpile of operational nuclear warheads and further testing isn't needed. Kim Jong-un knows he only needs just so many warheads in his arsenal because were he to launch against a U.S. territory or our mainland in a matter of minutes his country would be decimated by a massive counter strike.
14
Jay Amberg,
So why does Kim need just so many Warheads, knowing his country would cease to exist if he used them against the U.S?
Because they are actually there for ensuring North Korean protection from attack or hostile act from the U.S. Nuclear weapons inoculates North Korea from such a threat as the cost is too high for attack.
By the way , you are also saying that if he launched Nukes at America the U.S in a matter of minutes would decimate North Korea in a massive counter strike.
Really?
As an act of Revenge on an attack that had used up all its nukes thus removing any further threat to the U.S?
So any U.S massive counter strike would have no military or defencive imperative and be enacted solely to destroy an entire Country and people ?
So America in cold blooded revenge would destroy North Korea and kill most of its 25 million innocent inhabitants because it wanted to teach Kim a lesson?
And of course as a consequence would also severely damage South Korea and kill a huge amount of its people as well as Chinese and probably parts of Japan and others from radiation and other real harm from its action?
That's all ok is it?
So Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Iraq and others have the same right to get revenge because of U.S attacks on them?
North Korea too. As between 1950-53 the U.S bombed the country so heavily, not a single structure was left standing and 30% of the entire population were killed.
The U.S leaves many debts not yet repaid. Don't make more.
I value everyone's opinion. My comment was not to condone the action of my country were it attacked by N.Korea it was a personal analysis based on news, commentaries and observations from sources both civilian and military much closer to the Korean situation than me. You have no clue what I did or my opinions on America's involvement in Indochina or the Middle East so you will have to excuse me if I choose to ignore those comments. "The side that knows when to fight and when not will take victory," Sun Tzu.
Fair enough, my only point was based on the Response you made mention of America's response: " his country would be decimated by a massive counter strike."
Perhaps I responded to that point too personally when in fact I wasn't intending to and was supposed to aim it rhetorically and not personally as it sure sounded to you and was written I guess in response to you , for your point mentioning American response.
I'm sorry for my attack at what seemed a personal one at you. Even the last words of my post were supposed to be general and directed at America , certainly not you! That's what happens when writing too fast , too late at night whilst tired. Again my apologies and my intent did not match my poor writing skills and caught you in my errors and for that I'm sorry.
"Some analysts have also played down the significance of North Korea’s decision to shut down the site. They said that after six tests, all conducted in deep tunnels, the site has most likely caved in and become too unstable for another test." Well this might get him some assistance cleaning up the old site while he prepares new ones. He is not going to stop testing.
Mr. Trump will be able to brag that he brought this about, even though he didn't. He already gave the North Koreans what they have wanted for decades, the promise of a meeting. Kim has done his homework, Mr. Trump doesn't trust people enough to let them help him to do his.
Will we see a Trump business get established in North Korea? Will they buy their military uniforms from Ivanka?
Meanwhile the world is negotiating and establishing trade deals that will bring the American economy down. Nero fiddles.
22
Nero isn’t the only guy fiddling. He has several hundred others in Congress and around the nation who are turning the pages of the music.
5
Trump is utterly baffled at this point. At least the idiot seems to understand that he's probably being played by Kim. Of course, NK now has a working nuclear arsenal. Demolishing this probably end-of-life test facility doesn't change that reality.
22
No matter what be the ultimate outcome the destruction of the sole nuclear site is a world wide symbolic event given that the US offered no overt concessions.My guess is that the US working group has assured Kim that with each verified reduction of their nuclear arsenal some sanctions would be lifted followed
by a package of economic incentives and direct monetary outlays
2
Maybe the site was unusable, maybe the site can be brought back, maybe North Korea can test elsewhere, nothing could be verified independently, North Korea said they didn't need the site anyway, this does nothing to prevent anything, etc.
Lots of questions there.
And the fact that this was done before the summit raises red flags. If shutting down that site was something important to us, North Korea would be much better off holding that chip until the summit. Instead, they play it now on their own terms.
Either this is a move with no value to us if brought up under the scrutiny of tense negotiations or they're taking that option off the table ahead of time in order to hide/prevent something that inevitably would have arisen when the subject came up during negotiations.
Ultimately, this is either a meaningless gesture or a diversion.
But Trump took the bait. He has already anointed this as a major victory and sign of good faith, so he has put America in a position to give something in return.
North Korea will likely wind up with something for nothing.
52
The site appeared to have self-destructed due to prior use and a collapsing mountain. It was at risk of imploding in 2017. China had complained. It is contaminated to the max. Drifting radiation would have followed the next test. Hurrah. Nobel for Donald.
18
Verify it!
20
This is shut down because it has done its job. NK has nukes that work and that can destroy its neighbors. Its a great PR stunt and Kim knows it will allow trump to give him stuff and declare a win because that's all trump cares about.
57
Can’t wait for “John Barron” to submit his nomination for Trump to receive the Nobel Peace Prize.
2
This site was already unusable because of the landslides and soil sinkage that happened because of North Korea's nuclear testing. This is another false flag by North Korea.
48
“Gracious” gesture? Odd comment.
9
This is their nuclear test site that many reports said had collapsed and was possibly leaking radiation. Whats the big deal !! They are looking for handouts to clean it up so it doesnt poison the NK people or the chinese living near the border. This is NOT a major break through, or worthy of "Breaking News".
23
The president is a fool if he believes that North Korea destroyed its nuclear site after years of money, sweat and ideology poured into making the country a nuclear power and a player on the global stage. Kim Jong-un has something up his sleeve. He knows that Iran cooperated with the US and its allies in the deal, yet the president trashed it and pre-deal sanctions are back in place. What does Kim have to gain by doing this?
7
from Mrs. Peter Abken aka Susan:
The Swiss press, i.e. Neue Luzerner Zeitung in the German original, has a positive take on this development. Perhaps readers would like to check out the English translation.
3
The Swiss press also hailed Neville Chamberlain at Munich in 1938.
...but all are invited to watch the Trump administration appear on "Fox and Friends" and lay waste the peace initiatives initiated by South Korean President Moon.
5
Kim and Donald deserve each other. We don't deserve either.
122
Perfect summary.
Yes, we bloody well do. We deserve Trump. Where do you think this goon came from? Our backward, gun fetishizing, willfully ignorant electorate has been spoiling to elect its mirror image since George Wallace lost his bid for the presidency. Take a good look at our leader, America. This is who we are.
1
"North Korea says" is about as trustworthy as "Donald Trump says".
52
The site was already severely damaged and no longer needed. The gesture is minimal on their part. The meeting is still in doubt but we can already predict what kind of concessions would need to come from the US - Kim wants to stay in power and our word alone on that has no value abroad. They are going to want our military out of South Korea (which is conceding a key position in the Asia/Pacific region) and places South Korea at risk of a unified Korean peninsula under China's influence. At which point they have no reason to agree to inspection of their nuclear program. Slipping on NK places our allies Japan, India, the Philippines, etc. in an awful position. But Trump has already weakened NATO much to Russia's applause, so won't be surprised the same happens with China to the benefit of Trump, Inc.
14
Trump is finding out what it is like to be a contestant on the Apprentice (that is what he is in these negotiations)---all that is left is when Kim Jong-un tells Trump he is fired.
5
Two propagandists arranging a "summit": Kim says he's shutting down a (now defunct) test site, Trump says it's a wonderful gesture (even though he knows it's a sham.) Both fool their base about this brilliant breakthrough.
4
Those bases of support cheer loudly when handed and bag full of shiny objects.
Wasn't there the little matter that the site was no longer viable anyway? Can't wait to see what Trump tweets..probably wants the Nobel prize now! This whole thing between Trump and Kim is like watching two comedians on open mike night, except actual lives and the safety of our environment is in the balance. By the way, Kim is better on stage than Trump. Oh, for the good old days when nobody payed any attention to diplomats because they were smart and doing their jobs so that there weren't daily and hourly crises.
4
".....when nobody payed any attention to the diplomats...".
The days of diplomats are days gone by with this sad reality show, "Presidential Apprentice", where the vain star is his own diplomat-and the failures are quite the scene in every episode.
The facility was no longer a viable test site. Previous testing made the mountain unstable for subsequent testing. So this is a PR move nothing more. North Korea gave up nothing here.
11
Mr. Kim, or maybe his advisors, are much smarter that I had thought. Well in comparison to our negotiating team of one anyway. First, they offer Trump a chance to look like he could do what other U.S. presidents couldn't with the North Korea issue and maybe get a Nobel in the process. Boy was he excited!
Then, they pulled back enough to worry him that he may have had those coins printed for a bit too soon.
Now, they get his excited again because they shut down a worthless test site.
Reminds me of a fisherman with a big marlin on the line. Give it a little line, then reel it in a little closer.
Kim understands that this POTUS's ego and ignorance is the perfect combination bait to land the big one.
30
This action means very little.
Where were the international inspectors?
Since when do journalists verify such a claim?
Can you imagine if this happened on a Democrat's watch?
The GOP would be foaming at the mouth.
7
North Korea retains their nuclear arsenal and missile system. The test site is no longer necessary or relevant.
5
Invite the USA to bomb the living daylight out of it, with conventional. It can only double the tragedy of radiation exposure to the populous.
Kim is playing Trump like a violin, using him to get close to South Korea and then ditching him when Trump had outlived his usefulness.
The statements from N. Korea today, in which Mike Pence was described as 'stupid', highlight the money and effort wasted by the Trump Administration on lost causes. The Trump-Kim medal commemorating the U.S.-N.Korean rapprochement is typical of the hasty, premature and counterproductive methods adopted by this chaotic administration.
38
"North Korea might end like Libya.”--Vice President Mike Pence.
Whether or not North Korea destroyed a test site doesn't allay their fears that Donald Trump intends to permanently de-nuclearize the North. And the "ignorant and stupid" remarks by the vice-president certainly doesn't help matters.
It's impossible to imagine that Kim Jong-un would bow to American demands, especially when the "terms" that Trump would offer are completely without substance and insulting any intelligence.
Neither Kim nor Trump is to be trusted. What does that say about the prospects--immediate and future--for world peace?
94
If Gadaffi wasn't killed by angry Libyans, the US would have done it. Why? In 1988 a passenger jet was bombed over Lockerbie, Scotland. Gadaffi's people did it.
2
And just what indication do we have the North Koreans are willing to rise in rebellion? That is wishful thinking at best and dangerous delusion at worst. However, considering the source and recent history, dangerous delusion is apparently SOP.
2
It strains credulity to believe that Mr Kim has permanently destroyed all of North Korea's nuclear capability.Journalists and scientists viewing an explosion at a distance does not prove that the nuclear threat has disappeared.Both Mr.Kim and Mr.Trump deal in smoke and mirrors-before any concessions are made there needs to be a verification by a recognized group of nuclear scientists that the nuclear sites are in fact no longer operational and cannot be made operational.
3
Before anybody gives unwarranted credit to unindicted coconspirator Donald J. Trump, please note that the North Koreas blown up parts of nuclear plants in the past. It's good theater. Here's from 2008:
https://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/28/world/asia/28korea.html
1
Chess or checkers; whose playing what? In the world of international nuclear diplomacy everyone speaks with forked tongue. While the emphasis of the coverage is on N. Korean “truthiness”, one might remember that following the end of the Cold War the US promised not to extend NATO. Guess who broke their word? The military/industrial complex cannot be trusted and Kim is fully aware of that. Iran was subverted by the US in 1953 now they want nukes. Heck, the US still violates treaties with the native people here in North America! The Bolton/Libya diplomatic gambit was another stroke of Neo Con genius, so who is the dangerous, unstable actor in this scenario? I think everybody is best off keeping their nukes and agreeing not to use them. And let’s not assume there are “good people on all sides” here.
2
Someone else is calling the shots with North Korea. And somehow, I doubt these sites were operational. Doesn't anybody remember their failure not so long ago where the tunnel "collapsed" and killed over 200 people? It's a tightrope for Trump to walk, and most of the time, he is all over the place, desperate for a peace prize.
3
I don't think we need to talk about this. We already have Iran to keep the war machine going.
2
Six months ago, right wind pundits were shouting about how Kim Jong Un can't be trusted or reasoned with and extolling the merits of a "surgical strike". I can't wait to hear them say what a brilliant negotiator Trump is and how he's truly earned himself a Nobel Peace Prize. Pretty amazing flip if you ask me.
I certainly hope this true but without any independent verification, I trust this as much as I trust Trump's estimate of his inauguration crowd size.
3
It appears that North Korea has begun a reciprocal gradual destruction of its nuclear weapons program following Donald Trump's removing full elimination of the program as a precondition to the June 12 summit. But, as former Energy Secretary and author of the Iran Nuclear Accord said recently, "Distrust, but verify, VERIFY!" Without trained inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency present, one must be skeptical and realize that such inspections must be part of any deal to denuclearize the Korean peninsula.
1
The Iran deal had stringent and exhaustive independent verification. North Korea won't allow any independent verification. And Trump is the 'dealmaker'?
We'll just have to see how he frames this to look like a "great deal" and "America First". This whole reality TV show of the Trump presidency is getting old. I hope he doesn't get renewed for a new season.
5
It is easy to stage a show of destroying the entrance tunnels when the mountain took care of collapsing all of the internal structures.
Like Donald, he put on another TV show.
5
What N. Korea has done is to close-down a fatally damaged testing facility that was scheduled to be decommissioned regardless of negotiations with the U.S. Kim Jong Un has already publicly stated the facility had already served it's purpose.
This is hardly a victory for the Trump Admistration.
5
Given the track record of the DPRK in the past I wouldn’t believe that Kim is actually giving up his nukes. As long as the knowledge and material is there North Korea can still be a Nuclear State.
What really troubles me is what Kim is going to use this gesture for when it comes to getting what he wants from President Trump. It’s obvious that the DPRK is very good at manipulating people. Let’s just hope that Trump isn’t the next Raymond Shaw.
2
I do not believe Un for 1 minute. He is a consummate liar and has broken all agreements with nations in the past. In addition, there have been no inspections of the 'so called' nuclear site.
In this article: "Others cautioned that the North might be shutting the site down in a way that could allow it to be reopened quickly if negotiations with Washington sour."
And S. Korea allowed a "selected group of reporters" . Are they trustable and there have been no official inspectors to inspect this site and possibly other sites. Something is very fishy here...
41
I believe him more than the consummate liar in the White House. Kim needs South Korea's economy and expertise. He also does not want to be China's puppet. Kim may be a liar, as you say, but he has much more intelligence than Trump.
10
@kilika Chicago:
With the upmost respect, I believe the article stated that North Korea allowed a select group of journalists, not South Korea.
4
In fact I would never trust china , north korea or south korea.
As another commentator notes, there are reports the testing site had collapsed recently. Filling it in is a safety measure for the North Koreans. Any sign they are building or have built an alternative testing site?
This is not any sort of win for Trump, "nature" is just taking its course.
6
Seems like all Kim wants out of Trump is international legitimacy, and he may get it.
By preemptively dismantling an allegedly already-inoperative site, Kim continues to remove Trump’s leverage and take more bargaining chips off the table.
Even if Trump getting played makes the world safer, we may just have to take it.
6
Whether with its aggressive nuclear posture earlier, or the claimed cessation of nuclear test activity and peace overtures now, North Korea has certainly
outmanoeuvred the US in its game of diplomacy backed by China, and credentialled by the US ally South Korea. Trump is really on the receiving end with no option but to react to what North Korea says.
23
They don't need the site anymore. North Korea has already stockpiled a sufficient number of bombs that they feel gives them adequate security. What they do need to perfect a missile delivery system and this shutdown has nothing to do with that. We really don't know how far along they are with that. We do know they can reach the mainland, but atmospheric reentry might still be a problem for them. They do not need such capability to threaten their neighbors, including Japan. Perhaps that is viewed by Kim to be a sufficient deterrent. Do Pakistan, India and Israel have intercontinental ballistic missiles? They don't need them either to keep their enemies at bay. It's all about the neighborhood.
This demolition is nothing but a publicity stunt to placate Trump. Looks like it worked. It takes a con man to con a con man.
153
Kim is playing to Trump's ego. Anything that can give Trump a sense of victory serves as leverage for Kim's goals.
Bolton is too blinded by rage at the world to advise anything short of war, and certainly would not be the one to advise his boss on careful and thoughtful negotiations.
Trump's "we'll see" attitude is not conducive to negotiations about denuclearization. It's just an obvious sign of how out-matched he is.
141
@Mike James: I have similar feelings regarding political discussions that you expressed here. I also should admit that me taking part in the comments section only adds to the ridiculousness of it all. Again, I agree that people appear to apply the same fervor to politics as they do with a sports team; that being, blinded by their commitment in time, and a blind faith in some other shared attachments to their choice. Most of us suffer from the 'Tell me what I want to hear, not what I need to know'.
That being somewhat a reflection of our thinking, one might want to grant a bit of deference; after all, most of us are just pawns, sitting ducks, sheep, powerless spectators that need to vent. Maybe this place aides us in feeling that our thoughts matter in some small way.
The comments section of most internet applications are not the best place to raise the quality of discussions to a sophisticated level one normally craves. The few people that do appear in these sections are far and few - nevertheless they're out there, I've read a number of them. Patience. That's what i'm trying.
Hahahah, yeah, Kim definitely won that round by releasing his hostages, having his threat to leave the table pulled out from under him, destroying a second nuke site, and getting literally nothing in return. What do you think will happen to the foreign minister who insulted Pence? LOL, no wonder Obama could be so impotent with the glassy-eyed enablers that make up the entirety of the left.
North Korea is approaching a peace treaty with South Korea. As they promised long ago, now that they have nuclear weapons and delivery systems they have ended their related R&D programs. They wisely will not trust America. So, they won't denuclearize.
What, then, does President Trump have to negotiate about? And, how will he try to spin events into a claim that they are his great victory?
76
It was reported that this facility was no longer operational before its dismantling. It’s like destroying one of our mothballed battleships and then claiming a cutback on defenses.
186
If true that this facility was no longer operational, this entire charade seems nothing more than a Trump-like publicity antic and reality show ruse.
13
Yes. the Chinese reported that its roof had caved in.
6
Here's a Guardian article on the site's being not usable: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/apr/26/north-korea-nuclear-test-s...
Could this we a win for Trump? Without a verification from an independent body I don't think we can really be sure. I'll take the high road here and take this as an optimistic step in the right direction. But remember, this just means NK can't test nukes. It says nothing about the ability to build them or about destroying those already built. Let's change that to optimistic but skeptical.
10
I withdraw this comment. The King of Chaos changes direction so fast that within hours of this article’s original posting he had cancelled the summit. I do remain justified that our President is a loose cannon and cannot be trusted to engage in careful negotiations with anything like restraint. The US continues to lose credibility with the rest of the world.
7
@TW,
Your first, generous comment, given despite misgivings, followed by your public exclamation of whiplash, reflects well my experience with this topic. Undoubtedly we will experience more of the same going forward, given that we've experienced much of this sort of whiplash up to this point. This is the "wait and see" presidency. I genuinely wonder how history will look back at this administration? There is something novel about it, something, like it or not, transformational. It seems to transform the presidency, including all levels of negotiation with foreign powers, into an entertainment spectacle very similar to reality TV. We are given a blow-by-blow like never before. Not that previous administrations avoided spectacle, but this administration is built on it. I guess real world outcomes will make a difference as to how this transformation gets viewed, whether it will be rejected by future administrations or embraced.